Anybody Ever Heard of Conservative Undergound?
They’re freeping our petition over at OhioMajorityRadio.com
It’s not a big attack, but our tech has a day job, AND a sick kid, so his petition housekeeping may get behind..
And, it’s no biggee, but, almost all the comments have been pretty passionately in our favor. Seeing troll crap spoils the neighborhood.
(BTW, if you want stop over and sign, you would at least dilute the crap. But PLEASE DO NOT FEED THE TROLLS by commenting on their comments. It makes your comment look a little weird when the troll comment you are referring too is gone. We have some like that already. And I will look weird if you get there and our tech guy has already scrubbed it clean...but just in case it’s a while before he gets to it...)
(Am I pimping for signatures? When have I NOT been. You can sign even if not in Columbus. You give your ZIP, so you are misleading no one by offering moral support.)
No time now to write a proper diary, so I will cut/paste the email where I explain it to a Columbus Dispatch Reporter back on Jan 2. (He phone interviewed me yesterday, BTW. No story in the paper yet.)
BTW BTW: Or next event, a farewell call-in of fans gathered in front of the Ohio Statehouse during Stephanie Miller's last show in Columbus 11-noon, Jan 8. Still in process, but firming up.
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Dear Dear Mr. Ferran:
First, thank you for your article tipping us off about the plan to flip WTPG.
May I invite you to come "spy" on us as we attempt to save progressive radio in Central Ohio?
Our blog is open to you. You are welcome to "lurk," or even speak up, if you feel comfortable doing that.
(Your expertise would be greatly appreciated. We know you can’t "take sides," but if you see a blogger groping to find some radio-related info, and you offer "I can’t take sides here, but here’s the link," would that be much different from you answering an email from a reader asking for info? Anyway, it’s a thought. No need to reply on that. We will assume you are silent, unless we hear you.)
We think you might find what is happening here interesting. Despite short notice, we had a web site and a Yahoo group up within days. Within 3 days after posting our petition, we had 1,000 signatures (that took Madison 7 days), and as of now, we have more than 100 members in our Yahoo Group. (I’m told this is unusual in so short a time.)
Something else you may find interesting. As a spin-off from our effort, a Madison member, Aldous Tyler (phone here), has created a web site to serve as a rallying point for saving progressive radio throughout the nation ( http://www.nonstopradio.com/ ).
He has already announced this on several national progressive programs, but I bet no other reporter has picked up on it (they are probably on vacation, as I expect you may be). He has adopted this as his full-time job. (Having spent days trying to find someone to help, I have a special appreciation for what he has done.)
The purpose of his site it to both monitor the "health" of progressive stations around the county, and to help rally listeners save them. I know Aldous would be happy to supply you with information on what he is doing.
A brief chronology so far. (BTW, this starts from my point of view only. It could just as easily start from the view of the others mentioned.)
- The afternoon of the day your article was published, 23 Dec., I learned of it from an email.
- I spent the rest of that day and all of the next--Christmas Eve--Googling and emailing, with no luck.
- Late the next day, Christmas, I received an email from Stephanie Miller (she knows me as an occasional emailer, "Dave in Columbus"), introducing me to Paul Ackerman with Linwood Service (phone here), who runs web services for progressive candidates in Ohio. She said he was volunteering his time, and wanted help.
- We met at lunch the next day, and I listened, looking for things I could do while he set up a petition site. He came up with the name, OhioMajorityRadio.com.
- When I got home, one of my emails had been answered. It was Aldous Tyler, who had been key in saving the progressive station in Madison. He sat up our Yahoo blog while we were talking.
- The next day, the 27th, Paul had the petition site up.
- The same day, about an hour after the petition was up, I called in to the Ed Schultz show and talked to the vacation host. (The audio--both me and Ed Calling in from vacation--is on our petition page. Mine is on the left. I’m pretty much incoherent. But Ed’s message, on the right, is good.)
- People started showing up at the blog asking what to do. I was not ready for that. And so they started doing things themselves; calling the station, writing letters to the editor, emailing politicians, demanding we have a rally, and so on.
- I followed their lead. When I saw people discussing writing letters to the editor, contacting elected officials, and so on, I looked over their shoulders, grabbed their information, tweaked it, and sent it to Paul for putting into blue action buttons we are adding at this minute. (I even posted this email to the Yahoo group, and they saved me from the incredible embarrassment of addressing you as "Mr. Tom Ferran.")
That’s where we are now--right in the middle of it.
Our real "kickoff" target was originally Tuesday--tomorrow--when I am scheduled to call Stephanie at 9:30 a.m. (In my initial "plan," I had imagined we would have been pretty much invisible until then, since Ed Schultz is no longer heard in Columbus. We were not expecting this early response. At least I wasn’t.)
There are more details (such as the fact Paul left for vacation shortly after we met at the restaurant, and did much of his work at night while his wife and kids slept). But this gives you an idea.
Right now our plans, and even our goals, are evolving. We would have liked to have planned ahead a lot more, but it was not an option, especially with this happening on the holidays, and the big game on Jan. 8--the day before we are scheduled to lose our station.
Anyway, feel free to come watch what happens.
Just come on over to: OhioMajorityRadio
Dave